Open Book Forum | Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

4/09/12

Are you self-absorbed? What do you hold onto as an idol? How would you feel if God called you to serve in a land known for terror and torture?

These are questions the prophet Jonah had to ask himself as he lived out the story recorded in the book of the Bible that bears his name. Jonah: Navigating a God Centered Life by Colin Smith tackles many of those questions as it explores following God through an unknown and scary calling. Pastor Colin writes, “When God interrupts your life, you may find that your comfort is more important and your obedience more conditional than you thought. That’s how it was with Jonah. God’s call exposed a thinly-veiled selfishness beneath the surface of the prophet’s life.”

In the book, Colin Smith offers eight steps to live a God-Centered life as he prays the prayer, “Lord, make me less like Jonah and more like Jesus.”

You will be stretched, encouraged, and challenged while your idols will be exposed.

It can be easy to think of Jonah, “What a foolish person Jonah was! Who would ever have ran the other way when God called them to do something?” Yet we so often do the same. Join us this April as Unlocking the Bible goes through Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life for the Open Book Forum.

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. Jonah 2:8

Questions for Thought and Discussion:

Pastor Colin says about Jonah, “Think about this: people who do not know God are desperately calling out to gods who cannot save them while the one man who knows the sovereign Lord who saves is sound asleep.” How do we each day ‘sleep’ as Jonah did?

“When God exposed Jonah’s sin, it was the beginning of hope for the prophet and for the crew of the ship.” How does exposed sin do us good in our walk with God?

I can imagine many were the mothers whose children had been sacrificed to their gods, who went about lamenting the loss of their children to their stupid god.

The Lord was moved to compassion when Adam and Eve hid because they were (felt) naked. He made them clothes (from lamb skins?) sacrificed to removed their discomfort brought about by their disobedience.

Could He not also be moved from the cries of these mothers to send His profet and forever ending…